Onel Hernández is the first Cuban to play in the Premier League of football

July 9, 2020

On August 9, 2019, defending the Norwich City jersey and in a match against Liverpool, Onel Lázaro Hernández Mayea, a footballer born in the city of Morón, Cuba, became the first player from the island to play in the Premier League.

Onel Hernández has managed to play in one of the most important leagues in the world, despite the fact that football in Cuba is not one of the main sports.

Yaneisy Mayea, his mother, in an interview with BBC explained that she met a German tourist whom she later married and emigrated to Germany. But Onel had to stay on the island, accompanied by his grandmother until he was six years old and also traveled to Europe to reunite with his mother.

"It was difficult to leave him, of course, but his father needed to sign a document authorizing me to take him to Germany and he refused. Onel stayed with my mother for two years before his father finally accepted giving permission."

His stepfather was a football coach, and he was the one who encouraged him to play football, with the main purpose of helping him integrate better into the new environment.

That is how he came to enlist in FC Gütersloh, which currently plays in the fifth division of German football.

At age 14, he joined the youth academy of Arminia Bielefeld, a club that played in Bundesliga 2. Three years later, he made his professional debut on October 1, 2010 against Paderborn 07.

Before arriving in England, Hernández Mayea played for the regional teams of Werder Bremen II and VfL Wolfsburg II, to return in 2016 to Bundesliga 2 defending the jersey of Eintracht Brunswick.

In 2018, for 2.5 million euros, the Cuban footballer was hired by Norwich City, which that year played in the Championship, the English Second Division, and which a year later would achieve its promotion to the Premier League.

After securing his place in the Premier League, the team renewed his contract and extended his employment until 2023. "Onel exceeded all our expectations," said Marc Arnold, Sports Director of Norwich.

In early July, Onel has expressed his desire to play in international matches with the national team of his native country.